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Google Calendar is a free web-based calendar that allows you to schedule and share your personal and business calendars with others.

Google Calendar has become a must-have tool for many. With native integrations with Google’s apps, like Google Meet and Google Maps, you can easily manage and schedule meetings, organize daily tasks, and set reminders.

See below for guidelines on how to setup with Google Calendar.

Getting Started

Create a New Calendar

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Work tasks, personal meetings, and other day-to-day errands can really clutter up your schedule. Luckily, you can create separate, color-coded calendars for each aspect of your schedule. No need to look at a wall of blue boxes.

To add more calendars, click the plus (+) icon next to Other calendars on the lower-left side, then choose Create New Calendar. Name and color-code the new calendar however you want. When finished, you can check or uncheck the box next to the calendar name to show or hide its tasks on your main calendar so you only see what’s important.

Change your calendar view

Did you know you could choose how much of your schedule you want to see when you open it?

Usually, when you open your Google Calendar, it’ll only show you the schedule for that particular day. This calendar view is good if you have packed schedules and want to solely focus on that day’s activities. But, you can further customize it to show you weekly, monthly, or even yearly appointments.

To change your calendar view, click on the tab that says ‘Day’ right beside the settings icon. A dropdown menu will appear and you can select weekly, monthly, or even custom day schedules.

To set a custom schedule, head to Settings > View options > Set custom view. You can choose from several number of days, from 2 days up to 4 weeks.

How to add a Shared Google Calendar

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How to share a Google Calendar

In Google Calendar, there are two types of calendars: primary and secondary. Your primary calendar is the calendar where all the action happens: anytime someone goes to schedule time with you, they’ll be looking at your primary calendar.

Secondary calendars are really just calendars you can share with your Google account, which is useful if you want to see multiple schedules overlaid on one another. No one else can see those calendars -- your events from a secondary calendar will never be reflected on your primary calendar.

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Sometimes it’s useful to share your calendar with others so everyone can keep track of important events. People you share your Google Calendar with can see it in their calendar view and choose to hide it if they want. You can also customize and restrict what they see.

Find the calendar you want to share from the list under My Calendars. Click the three-dot menu next to the calendar and select Setting and sharing. In the settings menu, click Share with specific people > Add people.

Type in the email addresses of everyone you’d like to give access and customize their permissions to let people see as much, or as little, of that calendar as you think appropriate.

Add and Customize Time Zones

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In the days of

remote work⁠

, it’s not uncommon for companies to have teams distributed across multiple time zones. By adding additional time zones to Google Calendar, you can schedule that next meeting at a time that works for everyone. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner, then click Settings. Click Time zone on the left sidebar, then check the box that says Display secondary time zone. Click the drop-down menu and select the time zone you need. Once finished, that time zone will show up on your calendar view next to local time.

Use ‘Find a Time’ & ‘Suggested Times’ when scheduling a meeting

When you’re scheduling meetings, it’s important to remember that time is of the essence. If you don’t schedule your meetings on time, there’s a good chance that people will cancel, or maybe even reschedule the meeting at a later date.

The easiest way to avoid these problems is by using the “Find a time” feature when creating an event. After selecting this option, the system will show you the schedules of every employee/client, as long as they use Google Calendar.

Another solution is to go with the “Suggest a time” feature. By using this, the system will assess everyone’s schedule and automatically produce a list of possible meeting times from which you can choose the one that best suits everyone’s needs.

To use it, you have to simply click on find a time in the window that pops up whenever you create an event.

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Create an Event

How to create an event

By clicking the an empty time in your calendar

On your computer, open

Google Calendar⁠

Optional: If you want to add guests to your event, on the left click Search for people and start typing the names of your guests.

Click any time on the calendar that doesn't already have an event scheduled.

Add a title to the event, and any event details.

Click Save.

Tip: To create a longer event, drag your mouse down the page while you're selecting the time.

By clicking the create button

On your computer, open Google Calendar.

Optional: If you want to add guests to your event, on the left click Search for people and start typing the names of your guests.

In the top left corner, click Create Add.

Add a title to the event, and any event details.

At the top of the page, click Save.

How to edit an event you’ve created

On your computer, open

Google Calendar⁠

Click on the event you want to edit. If you see Edit event

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, click it.

Make changes to your event.

At the top of the page, click Save.

How to create an event in a shared calendar

Important: To create events in a shared calendar, you can:

Create a new calendar and share it.

Learn how to create a new calendar⁠

Share an existing calendar.

Learn how to share your calendar with someone⁠

On your computer, open

Google Calendar⁠

At the top left, click Create

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Add a title and any event details.

At the bottom, click on the calendar name next to Calendar

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Next to the calendar name, click the Down arrow

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. A list of all the calendars you can create events for appears.

Select your preferred calendar.

Click Save. The event appears with both the calendar name and the name of the person who created the event.

Tip: You can't create events for Birthday or Holiday calendars.

How to create an all day event

On your computer, open

Google Calendar⁠

In the top left corner, click Create

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Add a description for your event.

Under the date and time, check the box next to All day.

Click Save.

You'll see all-day events at the top of the page for that day.

How to add video meetings

Select Add video conferencing and choose either Google Meet or Zoom Meeting

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Add attachments to your event

Have you ever faced a situation where you are in the middle of a meeting and feel the need to mention a document? Or when you had to spend hours after a meeting emailing the participants all the documents you’ve discussed in that meeting?

To stop such situations from occurring again, you should keep all the required attachments ready before the meeting.

Google Calendar allows you to do just that. Here’s how:

Click on your event in the calendar view and select the pencil symbol to modify the event* and add a document.

Look for a paper clip icon directly above the description area once you’re in the event’s edit screen. When you click this button, a window will open where you can add files from your computer or Google Drive.

Once you’ve selected your files, click ‘Insert’.

*If you already have an existing event, simply click on ‘Add descriptions or attachments’ to upload your files.

Notifications

Customize Your Notifications

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If you’ve got an important meeting or appointment you can’t miss, set up multiple alerts for it. Calendar lets you program notifications for certain time intervals before an event, so you can get a ping sent to your phone one day, one hour, or 15 minutes before your event. Mobile users have several preset options but can also create custom intervals for notifications. You can also set up reminder emails.

To set up custom notifications, click the three-dot menu icon next to the calendar with the relevant event. Click Settings and sharing, then choose Event notifications to customize the default notification settings for every event on that calendar. On mobile, open the hamburger menu, then choose Settings and select the calendar.

If you want to leave the default setting alone and only customize reminders for a single event, click on the event, select Edit, and change the notification settings for that event.

Enable desktop notifications

To avoid missing appointments, you can enable desktop notifications to remind you about your upcoming scheduled meetings. You can configure these notifications to alert you a few minutes before the meeting, or up to a few weeks.

To enable this, you need to:

Click on the ‘Settings’ icon > Notification settings.

Click on the ‘Notifications’ dropdown and select ‘Desktop notifications’.

You can also check the boxes to play notification sounds and notify you only if you’ve responded ‘Yes’ or ‘Maybe’ to an event.

Enable Google Calendar notifications on Slack

If your business uses Slack heavily, this tip would be extremely helpful. Similar to enabling desktop notifications, you’re now enabling reminders on Slack. You can set a specific reminder time, say 1 minute before the meeting, and you’ll be notified in a dedicated Slack Channel for Google Calendar.

Use this Google Calendar tip to enable Slack reminders.

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You can also directly RSVP to meetings from Slack itself. Simply click on the ‘Going?’ dropdown to reveal your options.

To set it up:

Log into Slack’s web version and head to the Slack App directory

here⁠

Search for ‘Google Calendar’ and click on the app.

Click ‘Install’ and ‘Allow’.

Choose your Google account and grant access to Slack.

You’ll then be redirected to your Slack workspace to set up automatic status updates and notifications. You can change or update your preferences anytime by typing in /gcal in Slack.

Additional Tips to Maximize Productivity

Set a ‘Default Duration’ for Meetings

If you are feeling like your meetings tend to drag on for longer than they should, this tip is for you!

By default, Google Calendar sets a 60-minute duration for every meeting when you create one. However, you can change this to easily fit your schedule and shorten the types of meetings you create.

While you can manually change the timing when you create a meeting, this can be time-consuming if you create multiple similar meetings. Once you’ve changed this, every meeting you create will automatically reflect the duration you’ve chosen.

To do this, click on Settings > Event Settings and you’ll see the option to set a default duration. You can choose timings between 15 minutes to 120 minutes, which is the maximum time allowed by Google Calendar.

Create Events From Gmail

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We’ve probably all had meetings that

could have been an email⁠

, but what about an email thread that should be a meeting? Use Gmail to create an event in Google Calendar and resolve that extra-long discussion with a video call instead.

When viewing the email thread, click the three-dot menu in the top right-hand corner, then click Create event. A new event will automatically be added to Google Calendar, populated with the details from your email thread. The subject line will be the event title and messages from the email thread appear in the event description.

Create Notes From Group Events

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Need to keep everyone on the same page? Use Google Calendar to make a

Google Doc⁠

of meeting notes for your events with multiple attendees. All you have to do is select the event on the calendar, then click Take meeting notes in the event description. The resulting document is then attached to the event invite, allowing all guests to access the notes.

Set Up Daily Agenda Emails

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Want to get an automatic daily rundown of your schedule every morning without opening Google Calendar? Google can send a list of the day’s tasks right to your inbox. To set it up, go to your list of calendars in the left-hand sidebar and click the three-dot menu next to the one you want to use to send daily agenda emails. Click Settings and sharing > Other notifications, and make sure the drop-down menu next to Daily Agenda says Email. You will now get a daily email with to-dos from that specific calendar until you shut them off, which you can do by going through the same process and changing the drop-down menu box to “none.”

Edit Multiple Days at Once

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Sometimes you only need to view a few days of your calendar at a time. That's why Google Calendar has built-in Day, Week, Month, Year, Schedule, and 6 Days views available from the drop-down menu at the top of the screen. Mobile users can open the hamburger men to choose from Schedule, Day, 3 days, Week, and Month view.

If you need to edit or view a different selection of days—say, Wednesday through Saturday—you can do that from the web app. Click on the first day in the small calendar in the left-hand sidebar, then drag the cursor over the days you need. This will change your large calendar view to show just those days.

Use the Hot-Key Shortcuts

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In Google Calendar, hot-key shortcuts let you do everything from change the calendar view (hit t to view today, for instance) to add a new event (hit c to create an event). First, check that keyboard shortcuts are turned on; click the gear icon on the top right, select Settings, scroll down to Keyboard shortcuts and make sure the box next to Enable keyboard shortcuts is checked. Then, refer to

Google's list(Opens in a new window)⁠

of calendar shortcuts, or hit Command + / (or Control + /) from a browser to bring up an easy-to-read list of shortcuts.

Customize Your Colors and Background

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Google Calendar does provide color options for coding events and tasks, but you may want more than the defaults. Luckily, there are multiple

Chrome extensions⁠

that let you easily add new colors to Google Calendar, and even set a background image for your main view. The

More Colors For Calendar!(Opens in a new window)⁠

extension lets you add new colors by hex value and save them for later use. And you can add a custom background with the

Custom Calendar Background(Opens in a new window)⁠

extension.

Advanced Calendar Search

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Need to edit an event, but don’t remember exactly when it’s supposed to happen? Click the magnifying glass at the top of the screen (or just hit the / key) to conduct a quick calendar search. If you want to get super-specific, click the little drop-down arrow in the search bar for more advanced options that let you search by criteria like event participants, location, and date, in addition to your keywords.

Get Access to Your Calendar Offline

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If you’re travelling a lot and know you won’t always have the best internet coverage, you may want to enable offline access to Google Calendar. Click the gear icon and choose Settings > Offline, then check the box next to Turn on offline calendar. Google then then informs you to reload the page. For more information, check out Google's

step-by-step guide(Opens in a new window)⁠

of the process. One caveat: you’ll be able to access and modify your calendar even when you don't have an internet connection, but it won’t update across your other devices until you’re back online.

Getting Started

Create a New Calendar

Change your calendar view

How to add a Shared Google Calendar

How to share a Google Calendar

Add and Customize Time Zones

Use ‘Find a Time’ & ‘Suggested Times’ when scheduling a meeting

Create an Event

How to create an event

How to edit an event you’ve created

How to create an event in a shared calendar

How to create an all day event